Improved gold-separator



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Ore Amalgamator. I No. 56,636. Patented July 24,1866.

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Ore Amalgamator. .NO'. 56,636. Patented July 24,1866.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE,

CHARLES F. TESTMAN, OF PORTLAND, OREGON.

IMPROVED GOLD-SEPARATO R.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 56,636, dated July 24, 1866.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES F. TESTMAN, of the city of Portland, in the county of Multnomah and State of Oregon, have invented a new and useful Machine for Separating Gold- Dust from Dirt and Gravel without Water; and I hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the construction and operation of the same, reference being had to the annexed drawings, making a part of this specification, in which- Figure 1 is a perspective view Fig. 2, a longitudinal elevation Fig. 3, a transverse section.

First construct an air-tight room or chamher twenty-four feet square and thirty feet high, and in the center of this air-tight chamber build an oven and fire-place seven feet square and seven feet high, in which can be built the fire 0. Place two boxes, a a, on either side of the fireplace, constructed of wood and lined with sheet-iron, one foot deep, six feet wide, and thirty feet long. The boxes a a have a longitudinal elevation or inclination of thirty-five degrees, and also a transverse or lateral elevation or inclination of twenty degrees.

Upon the boxes a a are constructed the perpendicular boxes I) b, one foot deep, six feet wide, and extending from the top of the boxes a a to the top of the structure 0 0, in length as the aforesaid elevations will permit and require, and the boxes I) b empty their contents into the boxes or a.

Eight inches between the boxes I) b are left the open spaces y 3 to admit the hot air from the oven 0.

On the top of the boxes I) b are constructed railroads c c, to convey the dirt from the mountain to the boxes b b, and it the nature of the mining claim requires it the railroad d (I will convey the dirt from the tunnel to.

f is a door, and the only place that will admit air from without.

9 g are stop cocks to the boxes a a, which being opened and shut at pleasure, will control the flow of dry dirt from the boxes a a.

h h is a stationary sieve, through which dirt and gravel one inch in diameter will pass freely to 1. When his half-full of dirt and gravel, which cannot pass through it to l, then turn the termini of the boxes at a (see Fig. 2) back against the front of the house and tip the contents of h into the sluice-box w.

lis the roller-gage, through which the dirt and gravel pass to be ground up by the rollers m and a, then into 19, in the bottom of which (see Fig. 2) are riffles one-half inch deep and one-half inch apart, over which the dirt passes into a series of amalgamatingpans, in the bottom of which are placed the quicksilver-pockets s s, filled with quicksilver one inch deep, in which revolves the amalgamating-stirrer q q, dipping into the quicksilver about threetenths of an inch.

The spring n is attached to the bottom of the sluice p w, and by its contact with the stationary roller n the sluice p w is continually shaken up and down, which motion causes the dirt and gravel to be conveyed through the series ofamalgamating-pansout through If. The coarser gravel, that cannot pass the bottom of :r, is carried by the continual shaking of the sluice-box p or over 00 and out at a.

At t is a pocket three inches deep to catch the fine gold-dust that may pass through the amalgamating-pans, if any.

1' is a rake, to be used by a tender standing in front of h on a platform.

The roller on has the spring 0 0 attached to each end, which permits the flint-stones one inch in diameter to pass through into 1) if they cannot be crushed by the rollers m and a.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to obtain and secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The process of drying dirt in the boxes or a and b b by means of the fire e.

2. The application of the springs 0 0 to the roller m.

3. The method of constructing the amalgamating-pans r 1', and procuring thereof the gold-dust in the quicksilver-pockets by means of the continued revolution of the stirrer q q.

CHARLES F. TESTMAN.

Witnesses Q. L. HAGBERG, G. HANSEN. 

